Spectacular is a project that explores the relationship between Man and landscapes through belvederes, i.e. panoramic viewpoints.

Embedded into the landscape, these infrastructures are witnesses of a time of tourism popularization. Made more accessible, these landscapes inspire new consumption desires and new creative possibilities. These belvederes, also named “viewpoints” or “panoramas”, are even listed by a clear and precise cartographic language. They offer the viewer a chance to have a close encounter with a landscape that celebrates effective “beauty”.

The overhanging position bestowed by belvederes to the viewer gives the latter visual domination over the scenery. In these places, each visitor follows the trail to the landscape while being oriented, and orienting her/himself in it; the path and the journey allow her/him to move in order to adjust their gaze. There, the visitor seems cut off from the landscape, distant and separated by these railings that prevent him/her to take part in it. The gaze could be the only escape, a way to dive and include oneself into the landscape.

In these places that bring the viewer to the landscape, various scenarios occur, from being physically engaged to forgetting the place altogether in a final attempt to blend into the landscape. Is the boundary of the railings a way to guard oneself from being immersed in the landscape? How does the tourist free her/himself from these ties? The relationship between visitor and belvedere seems to be driven by the search for emotion and aesthetics; maybe it outlines a chance of renewal, like a quest related to identity.